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As we sit here tonight mulling over the events of today, tired and spent, I think today will go down in memory as one of the best.

We left to head down to Geelong around 8am, following a big black cloud the whole way. My concern was leaving the dogs out the back, Molly will not head to shelter or the kennel, she'll just sit and get wet if it rains, but as it happened that big black cloud just kept on going and there was no rain in Mortlake.

We spent a couple of hours with my mum on the way through and exchanged gifts. Mum even had a little Christmas tree up this year, the first time in 5 years. It was nice, a quiet time with her for a coffee and morning tea.

We headed down to Ocean Grove then for lunch at Andrews. Oh my! It was probably one of my most favourites times spent ever. Everyone was there. Andrew and Connie took great pains to put on a perfect spread, decorations, two beautifully decorated tables, and a delicious lunch of ham, turkey, vegetables and salad, followed by Connie's Christmas cake that she had cooked and decorated.

Everyone was there, Andrew, Connie, all Mike's kids, Wes, Tabby with Aaron, Britt and Tristan, and Ann-Marie and Callum with Jessica and Sean. It was fun, noisy, laughing, crazy good times.

After lunch there was a frenzy of gift giving. The funniest thing was that Ann-Marie and I gave each other near enough to the same gift, a jewellery box with drawers. Sean adored the remote control helicopter, but we won't tell Andrew about when it flew straight into the television cabinet and crashed with a thump!!

Family photographs were the order of the afternoon, and we got some beauties, and I made good use of the gorilla pod mum had given me earlier in the day, in setting up a complete family photograph.

We had the best time, so wonderful being surrounded by family, I'm so lucky being part of this crazy fun group of people.

On the way home we stopped at the cemetery and paid respects and love to dad and Pat and Mike’s friend Graeme. We placed hydrangeas on their graves which I had picked from Andrews garden.

Got home around 8pm, utterly exhausted after the huge day and long drive home.

Additional Info

Carol...i adore your detailed journaling. So glad you got to spend some time with your Mum...and that she had a tree up. Spending time with family is so precious and it looks like you all had a grand time